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Why the Met won't show Karita Mattila naked in the HD broadcast of 'Salome'

October 8, 2008 | 6:45
am

Karita Mattila. Naked. Those three words have been on the mind of practically every New York opera fan for the last month as the Finnish soprano strips bare in the Metropolitan Opera's revival of "Salome" by Richard Strauss.

On Saturday, the company will broadcast the opera live in HD to movie theaters around the country. While those at the Met will see Mattila go full frontal during the Dance of the Seven Veils, those of us at the movies will see something, well, much more restrained.

"You'll see the camera pan away from her as she does the dance," a Met spokesman told Culture Monster. "Either it will pan discreetly away to the audience, or it will do a close-up of her face."

The decision not to show the nudity came from Met general manager Peter Gelb, who, the spokesman said, "decided early on that the 'Salome' broadcast would not feature nudity."

The spokesman added that the Met markets its HD broadcasts as family-friendly events and that Gelb and the creative team are treating the scene in a way that is sensitive to the artists while still being true to the original piece.

When asked about Mattila's input into the decision, the spokesman declined to comment for the record, but he did point out that video clips of the soprano performing nude have circulated on YouTube, though these scenes are from productions in Europe, not the Met's. (Culture Monster was able to find one such clip -- a scene from a Paris production of "Salome" in which Mattila flashes her buttocks.)

The Met's decision to censor its own production will undoubtedly disappoint fans who've wanted to see what all the fuss is about. In an interview with the Times last year, Mattila described the scene as her "slutty, two-second nude pose."

But the broadcast will still contain its share of debauched moments, including one in which Salome canoodles with the severed head of Jochanaan -- the John the Baptist character.

Those who absolutely have to see Mattila in the buff can check out former Met general manager Joseph Volpe's memoir "The Toughest Show on Earth," which features a photograph of the soprano in character as Salome, minus her seven veils.